In the 1970s and 1980s, as Mercedes-Benz and BMW became the most desirable luxury brands in America, domestic brands found themselves losing more and more snob appeal. There was one major exception to the rule: Jeep. The SUV brand conducted market research during the 1980s and found owners of their flagship line, the Grand Wagoneer, had one of the highest median incomes of any group of vehicle owners in America. Although visually and mechanically little changed for years, the Grand Wagoneer was a favorite of the upwardly mobile. For 1984, those intimidated by the wood-sided beast’s sheer size would be able to purchase a smaller, more efficient luxury SUV: the XJ Wagoneer.

The XJ Cherokee had taken the market by storm. Capable off-road but competent on it and well-sized to boot, the Cherokee ignited the market’s enthusiasm for SUVs. Jeep had seen a need to crown the new SUV’s range with a luxury model and thus the Wagoneer was launched. Accordingly, the Grand Wagoneer received the “Grand” prefix this year, as it was previously known as the Wagoneer Limited.

Appropriately, this mint-condition XJ Wagoneer Limited was parked in front of a fancy apartment building on the Upper East Side. One wonders if this has remained in the vehicle fleet of the same wealthy family since the 1980s.

XJ Cherokees and Wagoneers were distinguished initially by a different grille and options, although for 1986 the Wagoneer range would receive different headlights. The new, smaller “Wagoneer Limited” was the most expensive of the XJ Wagoneer range (and shortly thereafter, the only member as the base Wagoneer was dropped). Promotional material pitched the luxurious new SUV at two quite different rivals: the Buick Electra Estate wagon and the Volvo 740 Turbo. For 1984, 55,596 Cherokees and 20,940 Wagoneers were produced.

Jeep had a smash hit on its hands with the XJ SUVs, and the Wagoneer range enjoyed a similarly affluent group of owners as the bigger Grand Wagoneer. They had also taken the market by surprise, and it would be years before four-door SUVs of this size would arrive wearing Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota badges.

The four and the diesel were generally regarded as being reliable but slow, and the GM V6 flaky. A new, fuel-injected 4.0 straight six with 173 horsepower, related to the 2.5 four, was launched in 1987. More reliable than its predecessor and with class-leading performance, this six would remain in production for many years to come.

Although the Grand Wagoneer was more expensive and becoming more and more outdated with each year, its appeal was strong enough to ensure it outsold the XJ Wagoneer in its penultimate year, 1990. Despite the ideal demographics of the little Wagoneer, Jeep decided to axe the nameplate for 1991. Wood-panelled Cherokees would henceforth be referred to as Briarwood, but you could purchase a swanky, monochromatic, fully-loaded XJ known as the Cherokee Limited. Its BBS wheels were more suited to 1990s styling trends than vinyl wood.

These license plates came out in 2006. In 2001 and 2002 everyone in NY got a new plate. They began with A, B, and few Cs. I think that D and E plates were not part of the reissue. If I would see an A, B, or low C I would say that this definitely belonged to some uber-rich family for a long time. I see that this is a well kept vehicle. When this came out it was the ultimate in yuppiedom. I lived very near this in the 80s and early 90s. Having this vehicle then made a powerful statement……..skiing in the winter, Hamptons in the summer………Upper East Side condo……….parking spot (a big deal)……living the life.

Two cars in my family had 12/2002 registration expirations and were some of the last cars in Tompkins County to be wearing Liberty Plates. One of the cars received Blue and White Empire Plates (same as this Jeep) number CFN 8346 come 2002. My folks’ bought a new vehicle in Onondoga County in August 2005 and their plates were DHF 6083. Due to a huge outcry the Blue and White Empire Plates were never recalled, but money was already spent on the Gold and Blue Empire Plates so the DMV started issuing them starting at FAB 1000 in April 2010.

Hard to tell a date by NY plate-ology, as the plates are transferable by owner (vs. permanent issue to the vehicle like CA). That said, these D plates would’ve been issued in 2007 or thereabouts. Current issues are low H’s.

My father bought one of the early XJ’s to roll off the assembly line, a stripped ’84 Cherokee. Vinyl interior, rubber floor, AM radio, No A/C, crank windows…. but it did have Select-Trac and the V6. The engine wasn’t bad, it’s weakest link was the stupid electronic controlled carb and noisy valves. No major leaks, no major faults except for a recurring whine from the rear diff. Managed 180K before rust finally took over the body to the point where it was time to put it to sleep. Great little vehicle, looking back on it now. The XJ Wagoneer? Rare sight even back in the 80’s. I remember seeing a few around the burbs, but not many.

To the author: I used to live around here for a while. I still go back every once in a while. From back in the day I always saw a 1980 / 81 / 82 Mercury Cougar that IS owned by the original owner and was a street car from the day it was new. 5 years ago I saw the elderly owner sitting in it waiting for the alternate parking to open up. He told me he is the original owner.

I went back there last week and saw it parked on Park Ave!!! This would be a great CC.

Great find and pictures! It’s always nice to be able to photograph a car in appropriate surroundings. That’s a great comparison shot with the Mercedes GLK to the right of the Wagoneer – a modern day successor?

Love the wood trim and front fascia of these too. I really wouldn’t mind owning one now as an additional car.

Maybe it’s an East Coast thing … but by 1980 or so, fake wood had no prestige whatsoever in my book. I remember several late-eighties or early-nineties movies where obviously wealthy characters were seen driving full-size Wagoneers on Long Island or Connecticut and it didn’t make sense to me; they should have been in a Range Rover or at least a BMW or Mercedes. Or if truly old money, a Buick. On the other hand, I always had a major soft spot for gold trim and BBS wheels, so the Cherokee Limited was and still is a favorite of mine. I’m pretty sure it was offered in the eighties before the demise of the XJ Wagoneer.

A true “Knickerbocker New Yorker” with a family-inherited Park Avenue or 5th Avenue multi-bedroom flat above 72nd Street on the East Side would NEVER be seen driving a Mercedes or BMW. In fact, it is highly likely they would be driving a Jeep just like this one (or a Peugeot or Volvo wagon just as old). The fact that it is a relatively uncommon color like the red one shown here, anthropologically speaking, is VERY revealing: it tells one familiar with the species that this particular Jeep was a year-end left-over purchased well into the next model year at a steep discount leaving the poor salesman with at most a $50 commission (in today’s money). And yes, it is highly likely that the original owner still operates this car; he/she still probably takes it religiously to Manhattan Jeep for punctual servicing. And why not? When you consider all it has likely ever done is a 70 mile round trip circuit between the North Shore and Manhattan say, on average, maybe 35 weekends/year, it probably today has a cumulative odometer reading of well under 100,000 miles. And I’ll bet the owner believes this Jeep has just finally been broken in. And it would only be ever in situ on a Manhattan street parked as you see here just long enough for its luggage to be loaded/unloaded under the benign gaze of the building’s doorman who probably remembers the very day the family first pulled up with it, so unusual an event that would be (siting tip: walk the Upper East Side any Sunday evening after 8:00pm).

“Change”, as a concept, is viewed as a bad thing to be best avoided. The bubble world in which they live well-insulates them (and by way of extension, this Jeep) from the harsh and unpleasant change that buffets most everyone else. Venturing outside this environment deprives them of life-giving oxygen, so they’re almost never seen anywhere else. And they don’t view the automobile the same way we do; to them it is something which possesses a utility, period. And if owning a particular car is going to show peers anything, it should be just what a bunch of skin-flints the family members are. To tap into the family’s “principle” to buy something as meaningless as a car is anathema and constitutes a crime against future generations; to be done only when one’s back is to the wall. For example, situations like a DWI accident (more common than they’ll admit), or perhaps a child who has rashly decided to attend a university far off the East Coast and needs a car.

And they don’t have “weekend” places, or live anywhere near “the Hamptons” (a “no go” area best suited for celebrities and new money types). The true old guard of New York, on weekends heads out 25A/Northern Boulevard to Long Island’s North Shore, meaning any village west of Glen Cove centered within a 10 mile radius of Piping Rock Club (i.e. Locust Valley, Oyster Bay, Cove Neck or Center Island).

You’re likely to find this same type of endangered species (with virtually the same outlook on cars) residing in just three other “game preserves” in the US: on the Main Line of Philadelphia, parts of Connecticut and finally in select suburbs of Boston. Understatement and showing everyone just how cheap you really are is “everything” to this species. Things you possess are handed down to you; you don’t go out and buy them. Driving an old Jeep has infinitely more appeal (for them and for their peers) than driving any flashy newish German premium brand could ever posess.

For interested parties, I’m available on short notice to conduct guided, endangered species “photo safaris” through any of the above game preserves for a reasonable fee (NO guns, please). And incidentally, I conduct my tours using a Jeep that is only slightly newer than this one. You may contact me through e-mail.

+1…Hulking old Buicks and 70s-80s generation Suburbans, too. Squire wagons. It was the same. Muttontown. Cold Spring Harbor. Fenwick. Black Point. Tuxedo Park. The Back Country before the hedge fund crowd bought it and Old Westbury before the lots were sold and the tracks built over. The Hamptons back when the “party” was still in Westhampton and east of the canal was quieter.

The stacked headlights on the Wagoneer Limited have always reminded me of a 1965 Rambler Ambassador. There is a family resemblance there. Love the Grand Wagoneer. I wish they still built them in this style.

I would think BOTH the quad headlight and the 21 slot grille models would be very rare. There is a quad headlight model about a dozen blocks from my house. It may or may not run as it appears to be sitting on the same spot every time I pass it.

I considered buying a diesel-powered version in the late 80s. A friend wanted to start a business exporting SUVs to a “Mediterranean” country for resale at a healthy profit. I didn’t know his other “partner” and I was a bit nervous….so I pulled out of the venture.

I’ve been watching ‘Last Tango in Halifax’ (a recent British TV series) on Netflix, and couldn’t help noticing that the stylish headmistress of a rather posh private school drives a black Grand Cherokee – while others around her are driving ‘older’ BMW’s and Land Rovers. Times change.

A strong case could be made that the XJ Cherokee (and its upmarket Wagoneer variants) were the true start of the SUV craze that has continued, unabated, to this day. The impact, then and now, really can’t be underestimated. It’s quite possible that the XJ could be in the top ten list of automotive game-changers ever built. Unlike the way that today’s minivan is no longer truly ‘mini’ (Paul more accurately describes them as ‘midivans’), the original XJ Jeep lives on under the car-based, CUV umbrella. In fact, today’s Jeep Patriot seems pretty damn close to the original in just about every way, except the main drive wheels are now in the front (which is not necessarily a bad thing when one takes into account the better fuel efficiency and the type of surface these vehicles spend the vast majority of their time).

I would add to this that one of the things AMC did right during what was otherwise a generally rough period was figuring out how to merchandize Jeep. Even before the XJ, Jeep really blossomed in the ’70s — their 1970–1983 growth rate is quite high. Kaiser had dumped Jeep because even with the Wagoneer and the revived Jeepster, they had a hard time figuring out how to sell the vehicles to the retail market. AMC managed to do that really well, and while it didn’t necessarily stop AMC from losing money, they would certainly have lost a lot more without Jeep.

I wish we’d had one of these growing up instead of the 4Runner…until I actually sat in the back of one! Man, dear, they must have had the worst rear seat I ever sat in! The few I sat in were like it was close to the floor and slanted ahead.

My Dad had one of these Wagoneers, an 87 like the 5th picture down (2, rectangular headlights instead of the 4 little ones) His was metallic grey, red interior, 2.8/5-speed, NO WOOD! He had had an 84 Cherokee before that, which was dead basic, so he wanted something nicer this time. His Wago had power windows and locks, definitely the first car he ever had with them. I remember riding with him once, and smoke started pouring out of the door panel-the window switches started on fire! He pulled over, ripped the panel off and beat the flames out with his hat. Of course none of the windows rolled down after that…
His first Jeep had the 2.5. The 2.8 in the Wago felt like it had the same 42 HP, but less torque than the 2.5-DOG slow. Oh, and when it was only a couple years old, somehow antifreeze got into the oil and killed the motor. He traded it for a 94 Cherokee with the 4.0-another base model. He kept that Jeep until ’12, it had over 200K (original motor) and gave it to his brother, who is still driving it. My dad has a Grand Cherokee now, he hopes it to last as long as his previous one.